Dalit Hindu girl befriended and raped by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu in Uttar Pradesh
Budaun, Uttar Pradesh, India 
8 September, 2025
Case Summary
In Badaun, Uttar Pradesh, a Dalit Hindu girl was deceived by a Muslim man who posed as a Hindu on social media. Following this, the girl was raped by the Muslim accused with the help of his Muslim accomplice. According to media reports, the main accused was identified as Shanu, and his accomplice as Arif. The accused had created several fake identities with Hindu names on social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. Villagers confirmed that the two used these identities to befriend Hindu girls. In this case, Shanu trapped the Dalit Hindu victim by posing as Sunny, a Hindu man, and claiming to belong to her caste. According to the complaint filed by the victim at Aonla Police Station, she was a resident of the Kadar Chowk police station area of Badaun district. She had become acquainted with Shanu, of Manauna, on Instagram. On 9th September 2025, when she visited Manauna Dham, she informed Shanu of her visit. The victim stated that at around 7 p.m., Shanu arrived in a car with his friend Arif and took her to Bisauli Road. While Arif drove, Shanu raped her in the back seat. At 9 p.m., the two pushed her out of the car near Manauna Dham Gate and fled. The victim said she had not known that Shanu was a Muslim since he had concealed his true identity. After the incident, she informed her sister and brother-in-law. The villagers then discovered Shanu’s real identity and revealed that he and Arif had similarly trapped many other Hindu girls. The victim subsequently registered a complaint against both Muslim men. On the morning of 10th September 2025, police arrested Shanu and his accomplice, Arif, from the Amla police station area, after an encounter. During the operation, Shanu was shot in both legs and Arif in his right leg. A car, two pistols, and four cartridges were recovered from them. The injured were given medical treatment. Circle Officer Nitin Kumar stated that when the police cornered the accused, they opened fire, and both were injured in the retaliatory action. Another case was to be registered against them.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category selected in this case is- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The other subcategory selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary categories selected are- Name changed and Pattern of targeting Hindu women. When a non-Hindu man pretends to be a Hindu to deceive a Hindu woman into a relationship, the act is seen as triggered by malafide intentions. In some cases, the woman eventually accepts the man’s original religious identity and converts after the man’s identity is revealed. These cases could be argued as cases of religious brainwashing and a result of the pressure a woman feels after getting into a relationship with a man. The woman, it can be argued, also changed her religious identity because of the stigma she believes she might face if she chooses to walk out of a deceptive relationship. However, for the purpose of documenting hate crimes, the cases in this subcategory are limited to those where there is explicit violence aimed at religious conversion against the wishes of the victim (force-feeding beef, blackmailing with intimate videos, rape on refusal to convert, etc), or if the woman herself complains of the man’s religious deception. In such cases, it is established that the deception of the non-Hindu man had a specific aim of religious conversion or targeting of the victim due to her Hindu religious identity, therefore, making it a religiously motivated hate crime. The other subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/or Groomed. Within this, the tertiary category selected is- Rape and sexual assault/harassment. In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered a hate crime. This case was a hate crime against a Hindu girl because the Muslim accused befriended her only by concealing his true identity and posing as a Hindu. The victim was specifically targeted for her Hindu identity, which itself showcased religious bias and animosity towards her faith. The accused knew that, as a Hindu girl, the victim would not have befriended him if she knew his real identity, and therefore the accused deliberately deceived her. By pretending to be Hindu, he circumvented her trust and trapped her in a friendship. This deception was not merely personal but an act of premeditated targeting of the victim due to her religious identity. It demonstrated deep‑seated hatred and made the crime religiously motivated. Following this deception, the victim was subjected to sexual assault by the main accused, Shanu, while his Muslim accomplice, Arif, supported him. This sexual violence was not solely for personal gratification but constituted a targeted attack against a Hindu girl because of her religious identity. The entire chain of deception, entrapment, and sexual assault showed that the attack was committed with religious hostility, making this not just a case of sexual violence but a hate crime directed against a Hindu victim on the basis of her faith. It is also significant that both the victim and the villagers stated that the accused had created multiple fake social media accounts posing as Hindu men under different names. They had used these accounts to trap several Hindu girls in the past. This established that the crime was not an isolated incident but part of a larger and deliberate pattern. The persistent deception and targeting of multiple Hindu girls revealed that the accused acted in a deliberate and coordinated manner, with the clear intention of exploiting Hindu girls because of their religious identity. Such repeated targeting and exploitation demonstrated that this was a well‑organised hate crime against Hindu girls, rooted in religious animosity. Given that this case met multiple parameters of a religiously motivated crime — targeted deception, sexual assault directed at a Hindu victim, and a pattern of premeditated targeting of several Hindu girls — it was added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker as part of documenting anti‑Hindu hate. Disclaimer: Media reports did not state the exact date when the victim was first befriended by the accused, pretending to be Hindu. However, they mentioned that the crime of sexual assault — the rape — took place on 9th September 2025. For recording purposes, the Hinduphobia Tracker considered this as the indicative date of the incident. Media coverage of the case appeared on 11th September 2025. The Hinduphobia Tracker maintains its records by marking the start of the victim’s ordeal as the date of the incident, rather than the date it was reported in the media.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 1
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 1
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
